HIT REWIND TO MAKE IT LAST! HUNNY ON THE P/A/L ANNIVERSARY SHOW AND NEWEST ALBUM “SPIRIT!”
BY EMMALEE SULLIVAN
There are certain artists whose work feels inseparable from the era you found them in. the songs, the shows, the versions of yourself tied to each release. For many fans, HUNNY is exactly that.
Ahead of the band’s ten-year anniversary of Pain / Ache / Loving and the release of Jason Yarger’s latest project, Spirit!, I sat down with the HUNNY frontman to talk nostalgia, creative freedom, and the evolution of a sound that’s never stayed in one place for long. From revisiting old demos and rethinking live arrangements to letting go of audience expectation and embracing what feels fun again, Jason reflects on the past while keeping his focus firmly on what’s next.
Emmalee: Welcome back to Televise Magazine. I'm your founder, Emmalee Sullivan. Today we are here with the most special guest, the lead singer of Hunny, creator of hit song “Televised,” and my favorite dancing white boy. Please welcome Jason. How are ya?
Jason: Wow, thank you. That was so sweet.
Emmalee: Well, you have such an exciting time coming up with a new album that just dropped, a new tour, and an upcoming anniversary show on the 18th at the Roxy.
The anniversary show is celebrating 10 years of Pain/Ache/Loving. Can we get any insight on the set list or are we keeping a secret?
Jason: It's probably pretty much exactly what you would expect because it's the four of us back up there together, it's kind of like a whole, like a mixed bag of something from everything that we've pretty much ever done. So I mean, obviously it's P/A/L in full of course, but other than that it's kind of just all over the place. It's definitely the longest set that we've ever played. Not by much. We're not going for like three hours or anything like that, but it's got pretty much everything in there.
Emmalee: That'll be awesome. Even some new album “Spirit!” on there?
Jason: Yeah. There's some spirit stuff too. Yeah. I convinced everybody to, to hit a couple licks with me.
Emmalee: That's awesome. So going back to the P/A/L era, you had some pretty fun hair colors ranging from pretty much every color. If you could assign each song off of P/A/L a kind of hairstyle, whether it's the kind that you had when you made it, or what you associate with it, what would each song be?
Jason: Um, ooh, that's tough. I feel like Natalie would get like an all over real short, all green vibe. Like Billy Joe from Green Day back in the day. I've always wanted to do that one, but I never did. Cry For Me gets all bleach blonde. Of course La Belle Femme gets a pink top. July's got like a blue hair kind of vibe to it, doesn't it? Oh, but so does Parking Lot. A little bit.
Emmalee: I beg to differ, but.
Jason: Oh really? I don't know what's Parking Lot. What's your vibe?
Emmalee: To me its very like a bleach damaged light pink.
Jason: I like that. A little faded. There's a little coral on there. Yeah, I've had that one too. That was a big one. Yeah, I like that. And then July gets like a blue. Nice, nice blue.
Emmalee: And kind of going with the aesthetics of the EP, did the cover for the EP kind of inspire the next work for Windows I and II, or was it just kind of a coincidence that the art was more of like, no one in the band is in it and it's just like different objects?
Jason: I mean, we were always trying to have like a through line for everything, you know, P/A/L ended up looking like it was maybe Windows Zero or something like that. Yeah, because it's like the mirror itself is kind of a little bit of a window. That's cool. Yeah. No, we didn't think about it too hard, but I guess we kind of just gravitate towards the same type stuff.
Emmalee: Yeah, it's definitely different from “Spirit!” which is great, but I just noticed that kind of trend and I was curious about it, so thaT’S awesome.
Emmalee:And then for P/A/L, is there a specific song that you gravitate towards or does it change every day?
Jason: Natalie HAS probably always been my favorite. That was like maybe the first song that was ever written for this band. And the original garage band version of it is on the 12 inch. Because I found some demos to put on the B side of the 12 inch. So yeah,the very first thing that I made for this band is on that, and it was Natalie. So that one's probably always gonna be my favorite.
But I also love Parking Lot, but only the way that we play it live.
Emmalee: What's wrong with the studio version?
Jason: I honestly, I kind of, people are gonna come for me, but I really don't like the recorded version of that song.
Emmalee: Why?
Jason: I don't know. It's just, I don't know. The vibe is off to me, but also, maybe it's just because I got so used to the way that we play it live. I don't know if you've seen it 'cause we haven't done it in a really long time. I just really like the live version 'cause it's all like stripped back and emo and then it gets really punk really fast. So That one, but only the live version.
Emmalee: Well, maybe it's just a sign to add it to future set lists from now on.
Jason: But I do like my guitar solo in La Belle. That one's fun.
Emmalee: Yeah, that is very fair. Well, it's unfortunate 'cause parking lot is my favorite Hunny song, but whatever.
Jason: I'm sorry. Yeah.
Emmalee: Going into “Spirit!” that came out on September 25th, you mentioned some of your past influences being Alex G, The Dare, The Teenagers. Were there any influences from your past work or was it strictly like listening to other music and writing how you feel?
Jason: I feel like it was just me pulling from like at any, everything and anything that I felt like I leaned into a little bit more of a Weezer vibe. The Windows, when it went a little more like, you know, kind of like the early 2000’s, like rocky than we have before, I guess. Just because it was just me and I don't care if this corny quote on quote. So yeah, it was just a lot of that.
Emmalee: Yeah, I think it worked really well. It kind of gave me hints of Windows II a little bit. Not completely, but just I felt it as I was listening to it.
Jason: Yeah. Maybe like “your love song pt. 2” Mm-hmm. Kind of that, like that power poppy kind of stuff, like the cars and shit like that, which I always love. Yeah.
Emmalee: For “Title Track,” you had fans help with the intro, with the Spirit chant, which was a really good way to just involve fans in your work and it kind of leads me to wonder if fan perception is something that comes into play when you're writing songs or if that's just a plus afterwards.
Jason: I mean, it used to be, but I mean, the longer that I do this the less, I try to be like, oh, will people like this song? Or like, will people think that this part is lame or corny or like whatever. Or like, is this like a Hunny fan song or like something like that. You know what I mean?
I mean this is a tale as old as time. Like an artist gets older and starts not really giving too much of a shit. What everybody else thinks about stuff. So I mean, yeah. I always just hope that people like shit, like the music. But I mostly make it for myself nowadays, you know?
Emmalee: Does the idea of how it will sound live, go into it or no?
Jason: Yeah, that one I always care about. To me it's at least half of the whole thing. I love playing shows and I love going on tour. So yeah, I'm always thinking about how something's gonna sound live for sure. That definitely influenced a lot of “Spirit!” because that’s why everything is high energy and fun. Because I just wanna freaking jump on stage and you know, hype everybody up.
Emmalee: And if you did a headline tour anytime soon, would you include some of your slower songs? Like “My Own Age” or “Your Love Song pt. I"?
Jason: Wow, “My Own Age,” Interesting. “Your Love Song” I've always wanted to do live, so maybe I will. I mean, yeah, there's always, especially on a headline set, there's always a place for slow stuff and emo vibes, like the ride of the set is really important, the flow and like having ups and downs and shit like that.
That's usually only something you can do when you have 45 minutes to an hour to do it. People that actually know who you are and the songs that you're playing. Because most of the time I'm on a support tour. I start playing like a slow song. It turns into the bathroom song for everybody. But yeah, definitely on headline tours, I do want to start messing around with stuff that, you know, maybe the other guys back in the day just wouldn't want to play.
Emmalee: You have the freedom, you can do whatever you want.
Jason: Yeah, exactly.
Jason: Convincing Kevin to sing “Smarter Ways Of Saying It” was hard enough. I love that little diddy and we had, when we did it live, we like made it kind of cool. We added some stuff on top.
You know, me and Goldie playing guitar on it more, but Kevin was always embarrassed to sing that one. He's like, “dude, it's just me singing this like slow ass song. I don't know.” Yeah, I don't know. Nah, maybe. But I've got “Your Love Song Pt. I” to do if I ever wanna bust something like that out.
Emmalee: The new album has some really interesting and fun song titles, some that have not been similar to past art, and I'm wondering if it's kind of because of your solo creative freedom or if it's just because that's what you were thinking?
Jason: Yeah, I wanted stuff to be funny sometimes. You know, like, “POV, Ur Dead and I'm Checking My Hair In Ur Sunglasses” I was like, that's just, fuck, that's just funny.
Emmalee: That was my next question, I just need to know what made you wake up one day and think this is exactly what I wanna write.
Jason: You know, I swear that I saw it in like a tweet or something. I saw it on like a meme or a tweet, I swear. But I've looked for it so many times and I can't find it. I don't wanna steal somebody's joke, but I can't find it. So I don't know. If somebody can find it, let me know.
Emmalee: Would love some insider on the lyrics too! I also saw that Kevin was on that song, so I'm just interested in how that writing process went.
Jason: That song started as a Kevin demo years ago, and it was called “White Boy Dance” and then I started writing lyrics to it and the first thing was “all the trees are pink, in my rear view camera,” so then it became trees.
But that one started as one of his demos, like years ago that we tried to write like, you know, five different times and it just never worked out. So there's a couple of those on this one where I just took something from however many years ago or like the past few years or whatever, and just was like, okay, I'm just going to finish the song myself and see what happens.
Emmalee: That's awesome. Is that kind of a typical Hunny thing? Is that you make a lot of demos and then you circle back to them? Or is it mainly like sit in studio, write a song?
Jason: Yeah. Usually things end up as demos, whether it's me or Kev and the occasional Goldie and, you know, sometimes they're just 30 seconds, and it's just two different parts or whatever. And then we'll all sit around and finish it. Or sometimes somebody's demo is just “oh, this is good as it is, let's just write a couple more parts on top of it and like everybody do their thing.”
Emmalee: I think that's the best way to make it work. I feel like the superficial just sitting down with a songwriter is just never what makes the best kind of work.
Jason: Oh yeah, yeah. No, we never did that. And like, there's only been a handful of times where we wrote a song at the practice space or something, I mean it works sometimes for some people, but, I think actually I think “Televised” was like that.
Emmalee: Well, there goes my job.
Jason: Yeah, that song's only two parts though really. But yeah, I mean, that didn't always work out for us because, when you're all sitting in the room together, everybody's trying to make sure that they're playing something all the time. Sometimes the song doesn't really breathe when everybody's trying to add parts, not everything needs it all the time. So It was usually always like demo stuff.
Emmalee: I love it and I think that also shines through with “Spirit!” It's just very genuine and you can tell that a lot of thought has gone into it.
You just announced a tour with Microwave in the spring, which is gonna be amazing, and I'm just wondering if that set list is gonna be more “Spirit!” focused since it is kind of your first original solo work or if it's gonna be a mix.
Jason: I think it will probably be very, very “Spirit!” heavy, if not even a few new songs. I have a lot of stuff right now that I'm ready to put out anyway because, I mean, honestly, “Spirit!” was done in the fall of last year or something like that. It takes a while to get mixed and then there's like “oh, we have to wait for this to start rolling it out.” and then it's like, even when the first song came out “Sidewaze,” people didn't even know that it was like part of an album yet, you know?
So it was like, “okay, well kind of like let everybody know that it's just gonna be you from now on. And then we will start putting music, like the new stuff out.” And then it's like, “okay, we'll do just two songs here and then we'll let everybody know.”
Because half of the people on that Instagram post that we made announcing that the guys weren't gonna be a part of it anymore, everybody was like “Aw, RIP damn, can't believe Hunny is breaking up.” and I'm like, no no ugh. I had to make sure that people knew that I was still a band before I was like “new album's coming out” but then after that, even when you announce a new album and then it's like still it takes six months for that thing to come out.
So I've been sitting on that record for like, you know, almost a year or whatever. So I'm ready to just start breaking out new stuff. Long story short, I'll probably end up playing a few new ones on that tour.
Emmalee: I'll be there!
Jason: That's good to hear!
Emmalee: You mentioned in an interview that “Sidewaze” was your least favorite song off of the new album.
Jason: Yeah. That's why I put it out first!
Emmalee: Okay, sure. So do we have a favorite or do we have reasonings why that's your least favorite?
Jason: “I Can See My House from Here” is probably my favorite. But I also really love “Xing Guard,” nobody really likes that one that much that one's underrated. “Sidewaze,” it's cool, I like it, but one of the songs has to be my least favorite song on the record, you know?
So it's like it just ended up being that one, that song I wrote that song just because of a keyboard part that I wrote for the live version of “Kick Your Teeth In” so if you listen to our Live at Paul's you can hear that keyboard part at the end. It's in the whole last chorus of “Kick Your Teeth In” and I put that keyword part in there 'cause I just wanted something a little extra live. So I thought, we could play whatever song I write with this keyboard part after that song. So that's why I wrote “Sidewaze.”
Emmalee: Was that transition played on the Cartel tour?
Jason: No, because I ended up not liking “Sidewaze” as much as other songs that I ended up putting on the record. So it kind of defeated the purpose of the song itself. But I will eventually because it's cool the transition is cool. I did it when I was playing that song on those May shows, a few headline shows that we did and the couple that we did with Knuckle Puck So it's documented!
Emmalee: WHAT? I don't remember that because I was at the Denver one. I feel like I would've remembered.
Jason: Dude, I did it. I totally did it!
Emmalee: Dang well till next time. The last thing I have for you is circling back to P/A/L. It's a quick game if you're up for it. It's called “Pain Ache or Loving” so I'm gonna list certain things off and you have to assign them a category. These range from deep to fun things, so beware.
The first thing is nostalgia.
Jason: That one's gotta be ache. It's all three, but it's really, it's ache.
Emmalee: The next is The Lakers.
Jason: Ooh. Loving obviously. Except for, except for the other night when we lost to The Spurs. That was pain. Yeah, because now we're outta the cup. But usually it's loving. It's always loving. It's unconditional loving.
Emmalee: Next is brain rot.
Jason: This isn't even the deep shit, but it is still deep. I'm going with loving. Fuck it. Loving.
Emmalee: Really?
Jason: Yeah. Why not?
Emmalee: I wouldn't take you for a brain rot lover.
Jason: I mean, look, I'm keeping my daughter off the iPad, but you know, for the sake of fun, I'm gonna say it's loving. And to not sound like a grumpy old dude, right? I already have this stupid mustache right now. it's for the holidays.
Emmalee: So it's gone for tour or what?
Jason: Yeah, it's gone. It's gone on New Year's. But I just think it's festive. My wife likes it. I have to have it for this Roxy show, though. I'm kind of upset.
Emmalee: You've had the mustache though, in past eras.
Jason: See, I know I was like, maybe the mustache is nostalgic for the show. Yeah, it is.
Emmalee: Next is Stickdeath.com.
Jason: Oh, loving that shit. How do you know about stick death.com?
Emmalee: I've been a Hunny fan for forever. You don't think I watch interviews? Like, come on.
Jason: Yeah. Big Loving For Stick death.com.
Emmalee: Tours in the winter.
Jason: Hmm. Actually loving, I like them better than tours in the summer. I'd rather be cold than hot. Because I'm always hot. I live in the freaking valley. I live in Los Angeles, so I'm always hot. like being in Chicago when it's like fucking snowing you know? And I like jackets.
Emmalee: Yeah. If you don't experience winter, I feel like maybe it's cool.
Jason: Yes, and we've only hit some really bad weather one time when we were on that tour in 2017 and Kevin was driving in the van and the trailer spun around in a full 360 on the I-80. Other than that, yeah, I like being on tour in the winter. I like being all cold,and like bundled up in the van. It's nice.
Emmalee: Fair enough.
Jason: But it's better than being hot and sweaty and stuff and always in shorts.
Emmalee: Yeah, but what if the heating goes out in the van?
Jason: Well that happened to us on that same tour and like I remember I was driving fully clothed inside of two sleeping bags and I couldn't feel my feet like on the pedals. That one was gnarly. But see that already happened, so fuck it.
Emmalee: All right, the next one is dating apps.
Jason: Oh, I'm just gonna go with pain because I don't have any experience. But I don't know because my brother-in-law and his wife met on Hinge, so maybe loving, probably a mix. I think I know a couple people that like, are like some of my favorite couples that I've actually met on Hinge, so. Hmm. That one gets both.
Emmalee: That's fair. Spotify wrapped judgment.
Jason: Mm. Pain. Spotify is pain. I have a tortured relationship with Spotify, you know?
Emmalee: No, I use Apple Music.
Jason: Good job. Yeah. Keep doing that. Yeah, I don't know Spotify is evil, but I also don't know really if my band would exist without it.
Emmalee: So Spotify as a whole is pain.
Jason: Spotify is pain.
Emmalee: Perfect. Good to know. Next is listening to P/A/L now
Jason: I've been doing it a lot the last like two weeks because I'm remaking keyboard tracks and stuff like that for it. Most things that you make after a while you're like, Ugh. Then sometimes eventually you come around and you go, you know what? That was actually really good what I did, and then you kind of hate it again and you like it again. So, I don't know. That one gets all three. Can I do that? Is that cheating?
Emmalee: It’s your EP unfortunately, so I don't know what cheating is.
Emmalee: Next one is pedal boards.
Jason: Oh god. Pain. My life would be so much easier if I didn't have to deal with them. I don't even have mine for this Roxy show. My pedal board is in our bus. Which is still in Pennsylvania. because the axle broke on the last tour so I had to leave it there for some guy to fix.
Now it's fixed. Then I have to fly to go get it. But I'm just gonna drive it to Atlanta. because that's where the Microwave tour starts. So whatever. And all my gear is already in it. So my pedal board's in the bus, so I have to build a new pedal board actually, for this Roxy show. So pain.
Emmalee: That's fair enough. Next is the future
Jason: Oh God, it's painful to think about it. Anxiety is fear of the future and not knowing what's gonna happen. So I'm going ache.
Emmalee: And then the last thing is Televised Magazine.
Jason: Oh, loving. Obviously that one's easy.
Emmalee: Perfect. Well that is all I have for you. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. It's obviously such a big honor to have you on Televised!
Emmalee: Is there anything you wanna promote to our viewers?
Jason: Um, no.
Emmalee: No?
Jason: No, I'm gonna take this opportunity to plug absolutely nothing. You know, just keep listening to my music? That's all. You know, if anybody wants to go buy anything off my Depop, that's cool. Trying to put a drum set in my garage and I don't have any room.
Emmalee: That's fair enough. Well, to anyone who is curious, Hunny is going on tour with Microwave this spring. You can buy tickets now!
Jason: Oh yeah, I guess that.
Emmalee: I would say go buy tickets to the show on the 18th, but it is sold out, so keep listening to “Spirit!” and be prepared for the spring tour.
Thank you!
Jason: Thank you! Bingo.
